Stairway to Heaven

 Ever since I put in my raised bed garden plots down the hill from the driveway, I have been imagining how nice it would be to have stone steps down that slope.

Last summer when nephew in law, Mark, was here and did some brick paver work for me, I bounced the idea around with him and he was up to the challenge.

This is the slope before we started work.

Once we decided the route to take with the steps, the hard work began.
Mark and Breanna and Vinny came to Rice Lake and spent Mother's Day working on our project.
Mark was on his own on this one, as I was still sporting a cast so had a perfect excuse to be an observer.

This is the beginning of the project.

Knee busting, back breaking work!  Yikes!
Mark is such a perfectionist and I am so pleased!

On Memorial Day, Krista and Mark came back to Rice Lake to finish the steps.

I was a little more help now since I am cast free, but I am still a weakling, so they did 99.9% of the work.

These step blocks weigh about 40-50 lbs each, Krista lifted them around like they were a big casserole!

Mark spent most of the day on his knees.  Ish!

The weather was iffy off and on all day.
We heard the storm siren ring in Rice Lake and we watched these clouds very closely.
In the end, we had a few sprinkles and nothing more serious,
Thankfully!

Ta-Da!
Officially "The Stairway to Heaven"
The mound of dirt to the right is going to turn into a flower bed mound...eventually.

I like that, to manage the rise, we did a random spacing of width and height of the steps.

How to end up at the asphalt was a topic of much discussion and some angst.
In the end, we all agreed that this was an excellent solution.

Now I have no excuse for not taking care of my garden, it is an easy walk down and back up again.

It occurs to me that Mark spent 2 holidays working on these stairs...I know he didn't charge me overtime, I think I will be sure he has some cold beverages in his refrigerator for the summer heat!

Thanks Mark!

I  L♥VE  my new steps.